Repairing crashing VM

Y a h y a 416 Reputation points
2020-08-12T21:59:54.673+00:00

Hi

Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V Host +
Windows Server 2016 DC Hyper-V VM +
Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V VM with Exchange Server 2016.

The hard drives controller suddenly failed on the server. When server came back up after hardware repair, Exchange server VM would just crash on boot and get into a boot loop until it stops and gives some recovery options. There is a message and a QR code which disappears very quickly so I can't see what the problem is.

I have tried everything I could think of but no luck.

Tried going to command prompt and do sfc+dsim+sfc. sfc was able to fix corrupted files in the end. Did chkdsk /f which found no issues with C: boot drive and minor index issue with drive E: which has Exchange installed.

Tried Last Known Good Configuration. Tried repair from windows Server 2016 ISO mounted as DVD for the Exchange VM but it just doesn't get to the repair process and would just get in a loop of startup options but never gets to run repair.

Exchange VM opens in safe mode fine though.

How can I fix this Exchange VM? There is also a checkpoint automatically created on it today when server came back up. What should I do with the checkpoint? Can I delete it?

Thanks

Regards

Hyper-V
Hyper-V
A Windows technology providing a hypervisor-based virtualization solution enabling customers to consolidate workloads onto a single server.
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  1. Cedric Chen 176 Reputation points
    2020-08-13T09:14:17.187+00:00

    Hi,

    Please run the following command and restart to check the error message:
    bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled off

    I also suggest run the following command in command prompt:
    Bootrec /FixMbr
    Bootrec /FixBoot
    Bootrec /RebuildBcd

    If you can enter into the safemode, try to perform a cleanboot to see if we enter into the normal mode.
    This link can be helpful:
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

    Please take the above actions and check if they works.

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  1. Jon Alfred Smith 541 Reputation points
    2020-08-12T22:14:17.87+00:00

    For virtual machines rolling back the VM to an earlier snapshot to attempt to solve the problem is not supported. A recovery installation of Exchange Server 2016 may be the appropriate course of action for you to take. At a high level the process goes like this (quoting Paul Cunningham):

    1. You install a new Windows Server instance with the same characteristics as the failed server (the same server name, Windows Server version, drive letters, and performance/capacity)
    2. You perform a recovery install of Exchange 2016 by running setup with the /mode:recoverserver switch
    3. You re-apply any custom configurations that were not automatically re-applied by the recovery install
    4. You restore the Exchange databases if those volumes were also lost in the server failure.

    https://practical365.com/exchange-server/recovering-a-failed-exchange-server-2016-server/

    --please don't forget to Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

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